be
made by the Brigade that morning. On the previous day the 156th Brigade
had advanced the line some distance and the general plan of our attack
was passing through the 156th Brigade to attack eastwards, finally
assaulting and consolidating a portion of the Hindenburg Line front and
support system. The attack was to be delivered by ourselves (on the
left) and 6th H.L.I. (on the right), the 7th being in reserve. At 4.45
the Battalion moved in artillery formation ("A" and "D" Companies
forming the first line, and "B" and "C" the second) to the position of
assembly at the railway embankment. This move sounds simple on paper,
but at night over unknown country the difficulties may be appreciated by
giving the experiences in this early part of the battle of the O.C. "D"
Company. Shortly after 3 a.m. he received a message by orderly to report
at Headquarters for instructions. His company was lying in an old
disused trench, where it had arrived in the dark. The ground all around
was broken up with large and old shell holes, covered with grass and
weeds and in addition high and low wire entanglements, which alone would
have made negotiating this part a difficult task even by daylight. He
receives his orders in an old dug-out lit by a flickering candle, and is
referred to a map of small scale and told to move his company
independently and at once to a rendezvous about 1 or 1-1/2 miles away.
There is no time to explain matters fully to his platoon commanders and
N.C.O.'s. No one has been within miles of this ground before. The
company falls in--into this network of holes and wire--in the dark, and
the harassed company commander wonders if it ever can possibly move in
any direction at all. Finally, with the aid of a luminous compass, he
moves his company in single file in approximately the right direction,
arriving finally at the railway embankment.

At 5.30 a.m. the advance was continued, our bombardment opening at 7
a.m., when we came under shell-fire. The river Cojeul was successfully
crossed, a river only by name, and on crossing the sunken road beyond,
the companies extended. Soon after Colonel Neilson was severely wounded
and Captain Fyfe took command until Captain Parr, the next senior, could
be informed. The advance continued to about 300 yards of the wire in
front of the first objective. Here it was held up by our own barrage
which was falling in some cases behind our front line. This was about 9
a.m. At 9.15 a.m. the rig